From 5083252852027506581 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: f78e5,6a0e273cd04a6fa1 X-Google-Attributes: gidf78e5,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2002-01-14 17:09:03 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!dispose.news.demon.net!news.demon.co.uk!demon!mail2news.demon.co.uk!not-for-mail From: Pete Becker Newsgroups: comp.std.c++ Subject: Re: new meaning of explicit keyword Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2002 01:08:51 GMT Organization: Dinkumware, Ltd Approved: Fergus Henderson , moderator of comp.std.c++ Message-ID: <3C438122.60DA25CE@acm.org> References: <92ce342f.0201100428.49e3dd92@posting.google.com> <3C3DE3E6.F27385B2@acm.org> <3C3E11E4.E454ABB0@acm.org> <92ce342f.0201110304.3045ea38@posting.google.com> <3C3F961A.AFDD9708@acm.org> X-Trace: mail2news.demon.co.uk 1011056938 mail2news:6242 mail2news mail2news.demon.co.uk X-Complaints-To: abuse@demon.net X-Mail2News-Path: news.demon.net!mulga.cs.mu.oz.au X-Authentication-Warning: mulga.cs.mu.OZ.AU: fjh set sender to devnull@stump.algebra.com using -f X-Robomod: STUMP, ichudov@algebra.com (Igor Chudov) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit NNTP-Posting-Date: 15 Jan 2002 01:08:08 GMT X-Accept-Language: en Lines: 31 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.std.c++:9043 Francis Glassborow wrote: > > In article <3C3F961A.AFDD9708@acm.org>, Pete Becker > writes > >A couple of people have mentioned templates as a reason for having > >explicit conversion operators, but so far I haven't seen anyone explain > >what this means. How do templates benefit from someone being able to say > >"if you want this conversion you must write a cast"? > > I think you have it the wrong way round. There are times where we need > conversion (via conversion operators) for templates. Conversion > functions do not cut it because there is no uniform naming convention > for them. OTOH I do not want to allow the compiler to use my conversion > operator elsewhere for all the many reasons that we know that conversion > operators are often poor design. > So you the solution is a construct that requires use of a cast, despite the many reasons that we know that code that requires casts are often poor design. -- Pete Becker Dinkumware, Ltd. (http://www.dinkumware.com) --- [ comp.std.c++ is moderated. To submit articles, try just posting with ] [ your news-reader. If that fails, use mailto:std-c++@ncar.ucar.edu ] [ --- Please see the FAQ before posting. --- ] [ FAQ: http://www.research.att.com/~austern/csc/faq.html ]